Author-chan's notes: Hello again everyone! I'm
so happy that I got such positive feedback for this story. Thank you.

Enjoy Ch. 2!

Skin and Bones

(Chapter Two: Hangon)

Hangon was never meant to be widely used.
That was the rule. As a result, even the monks that protected the
sealed scrolls containing the flowing script outlining the technique
had no knowledge of Hangon.

Hangon was ignored and almost forgotten.

On occasions, rare occasions, a monk guarding
the Hangon scrolls would study them, the accursed technique branding
itself in the mind.

Those who were discovered studying Hangon
were punished. Those discovered practicing it...

...Even Buddhist monks could show no mercy

qpqpqpqp

Year: Kaei 6; 1853 A.D.

Hayato was nervous, an uncommon feeling for him.
However, it was understandable, considering what he was attempting.
The last practitioner of Hangon had lived nearly 200 years ago and
still the legends of his punishment were used to inflict terror upon
young monks at the temple.

Hayato shivered, visions of torture dancing
through his mind. If any of his fellow monks caught him…Hayato
barely left the temple without anyone realizing he had read the
scrolls on the technique. He still had no idea how he had been able
to avoid anyone from knowing about his secret sin. The punishment he
escaped for even reading the scroll was terrible; the sheer number of
lashes made Hayato's back ache just by thinking about it. The
punishment for studying the technique and knowing it was even worse.

As for actually performing Hangon? Hayato didn't
even want to think about that. He considered it a miracle that his
knowledge had not been discovered.

Why had he learned the technique to begin with?
If he hadn't learned Hangon, then he wouldn't be in this
situation in the first place! He had been compelled to learn the
technique during one of his meditations, and he was smart enough to
understand a hint from the universe when he got one.

He wondered if the kami had a hand in that.

"Yare, yare," Hayato sighed out loud, "There
is no fighting kami."

Hayato and Shinta's parents had secretly moved
the boy's bones out of the hut. In a forest clearing, a few miles
away from the village, the three of them carefully reassembled
Shinta's skeleton. If any of the bones were misplaced or lost,
there would be problems for Shinta later in his second life.

It was difficult, to say the least. Shinta was
still very young, so his bones were rather small. Hayato took an
especially long time reassembling the boy's hands, the minute-sized
bones hard to work with.

Finally, the last bone was set. Hayato couldn't
help but muse about how lonely the skeleton looked lying there
without its skin. But what was truly strange was the feel of Shinta's
spirit brushing over his senses. His eyes saw Shinta's remains on
the ground before him, but his spiritual awareness argued that the
child was drifting quietly next to the three adults, the tendrils of
Shinta's spirit wrapping around Hayato's fingers, scared and
looking for guidance. Hayato couldn't stop his hand from curling
around the almost there, almost real, presence that was begging
silently for reassurance.

'Scared…' whispered the abstract
voice that was not a voice that made no sound.

'Everything will be alright,' Hayato
promised.

Hayato wondered it the child was having a
strange double feeling. Shinta was there…but not there. It must
have been a very odd feeling. Did Shinta (the spirit) feel anything
of his bones? Could Shinta feel it when Hayato and Shinta's parents
reassembled the bones? Did it hurt? Or not?

Hayato shook his head and faced the parent,
"I'll be performing the ritual soon. You need to leave."

"Why?" the husband asked, "We want to be
here when Shinta wakes up."

"I understand," Hayato replied, "But this
is for your safety, as well as Shinta's."

Hayato was no idiot. He knew the difference
between a request and an order.

Sighing to himself, Hayato spoke to the now
empty clearing, "We are alone now."

And he was promptly knocked off his feet by the
sheer force that answered him.

Hayato grit his teeth, trying not to scream at
the powerful voice passing over him in waves as the kami voiced their
acknowledgment. As it was, the monk was forced onto his knees, his
whole face depicting agony. This was no child's voice of light and
innocence. This was power in its purest form.

Hayato could feel the uncertainty coming off of
Shinta in waves. Hayato smiled calmly towards the young spirit before
turning his senses to the infinite light and power of the kami.

"K-Kami-sama," Hayato hailed, unable to keep
the trembling from his voice, "Please, we s-seek your help and
guidance!"

When Hayato had first met Shinta and the kami,
he was constantly hit by surprises, one of which was the kami's
request.

They wanted him to perform Hangon.

Needless to say, Hayato had been shocked. Why
would kami need a mere mortal to reanimate the dead when they
themselves could do it?

That was the ultimate surprise, Hayato believed,
to discover kami couldn't do everything. There were rules in their
Heavenly world, rules that forbade them from doing everything they
wished.

As a result, Hayato was given the task of
reviving a child that the kami favored. Hayato couldn't help but
wonder what the kami wanted from Shinta. They had not been so kind as
to give him privy to such information. However, whatever it was, it
must have been something big since, not one, but several kami watched
over the boy.

Under the supervision of the kami (how many were
there, Hayato wondered, sometimes feeling one divine presence then in
the next instant, hundreds) the monk began the Hangon technique.

But there were some differences. The kami had
Hayato substitute a few elements during the ritual. A few added
chanted words, a little less strawberry leaves rubbed on the bones…

Hayato was thankful for the help, automatically
knowing that each change was beneficial to Shinta. Hangon was not a
prefect technique and a kami's help was greatly appreciated and
helpful. After all, kami were lords of life.

Though Hayato did wish they would speak more
quietly to him. The power in their "voices" made his head spin.

When the first step of the ritual was complete,
Hayato stood back to observe his handy work.

There was a pot still half full of boiling
water, herbs floating on the surface. Hayato had doused the skeleton
with the herb infested water, by request of the kami rather than
painting the bones with arsenic as was the usual procedure. Different
kinds of leaves had been rubbed on the soaked bones, and there were
various blessings that had been uttered, enough that Hayato felt
faintly parched from all the speaking.

Yes, the procedure he had done on Shinta was bit
different than the technique outlined on the scrolls, but still the
basics and the effect were the same. The once bare bones had begun
growing flesh, slowly but surely. At the moment, there was only what
looked like wet red mold clinging to the arms and legs.

'Cleansing breath,' Hayato thought,
breathing deeply to center himself. It was time for step two of the
Hangon ritual.

The second step was the trickiest part of Hangon
and was, unsurprisingly, the one that often gone astray. Hayato was
to bring back the spirit and place it into the body. Luckily,
Shinta's spirit was already there, so half of the work was already
complete. However, Hayato needed an "anchor". Without a good
anchor between the body and soul, the body would fall apart within a
few days. In the original Hangon technique, the anchor was an
internal organ, usually a liver.

Hayato's eyes narrowed. Where would he get a
proper sized liver at this time?

Then the kami began speaking to him again.

When they finally finished speaking, Hayato was
lying eagle-spread on the ground, panting and sweating.

'Sir!' Shinta's anxious spirit
voice floated over to the monk.

"S-Shinta-kun," Hayato gasped, slowly
struggling to his feet, "What are you doing? Get into the body!"

'Demo…'

"I'm fine, now GO!"

There was a pause and then Hayato felt Shinta's
spirit slowly trickle into the half formed body. Rubbing his temples
and standing on shaking feet, Hayato reached into his robes, feeling
for the object he knew the kami had placed there. When his questing
fingers met a warm, gently yielding object, he pulled it out.

In his hand was a blood-red heart.

'Cleansing breath…'

Hayato shouldn't have been surprised. The kami
had told him about this, that they would provide an anchor for
Shinta's soul. But knowing and seeing were two different things.

And it was not everyday you held the heart of a
kami.

With only slightly trembling fingers, Hayato
placed the heart within Shinta's ribcage, sensing it instantly when
the body and soul were once again tied together.

Sitting down on the cold ground, Hayato only had
to wait for Shinta's body to finish forming. He watched, for
awhile, as the body firmed, but had to turn away after only a few
minutes to retch. Watching internal organs, muscles, skin, flesh, and
hair grow was not his view of enjoyment.

Instead, Hayato thought back on the (few) other
Hangon incidents over the ages.

Hangon was never a perfect technique. Since its
creation, Hangon had been riddled with errors. Most of those brought
back by Hangon returned to bones after only a few weeks but there
were a few that had lasted longer.

During the Sengoku Era, the Warring States Era,
there had been a revived miko brought back by a demon using a form of
the Hangon technique. The dead miko lived for several years and had
survived numerous situations that would have destroyed a normal
human. There were even some rumors that she still lived today.

But then again, she had survived by feeding off
the souls of the recently dead.

Then, in the early Edo period, there was a young
child who had been brought back using the traditional form of Hangon.
The child had lasted for several decades, un-aging and practically
immortal until the monk who had created her pulled out the mermaid's
liver that had animated the girl.

And the girl had eaten raw livers to sustain her
undead body.

In both these cases, supernatural forces has
been at work, not just the powers of man, and both of the revived
humans had to use some sort of outside source to sustain themselves.
In Shinta's case, supernatural forces had a hand in his revival;
the kami had even gone so far as to offer the boy a heart of one of
their own to anchor his soul to the world of the living. Distantly,
Hayato wondered which kami had donated the heart, but decided it
mattered little. Hayato could guess easily that, like his
predecessors, Shinta would be difficult to kill. The kami had also
outlined a few things for Hayato to help the monk understand what
would happen next.

One: Shinta would not become ageless. He would
grow and age as if alive, but at a certain point, the aging process
would slow down, maybe even stop.

Two: It was highly unlikely Shinta would be the
victim of a life-threatening disease ever again.

Three: Shinta would have to eat raw flesh. There
was simply nothing around that (Well, Hayato had thought, it was
better than devouring souls.) About half a pound once a week was good
enough and Shinta could still eat other food.

Hayato sighed and prayed he hadn't made a
mistake. Shinta would have a rough time fitting in, to be sure. Yare,
yare, it should not be so bad as long as Shinta didn't advertise
his state. Hayato had faith in the boy.

'I just hope he can live a normal life
after this,' Hayato thought with a sigh.

After a few minutes (though it could have been
mere seconds or long hours) Hayato heard some moaning behind him.
Turing swiftly, Hayato knelt down to help Shinta up, seeing the boy
in the flesh for the first time.

Short, pale, and redhead, Shinta stuck out like
a sore thumb in an Asian community. It was no wonder the Elder had
spoken so cruelly about the child! Abnormalities were rare and not
often tolerated, especially by the more conservative. Hayato couldn't
help but wonder where the boy had gotten the red hair, since both of
his parents were dark-haired. But there was no question that the boy
belonged to the gentle couple Hayato had met. The boy had the same
violet eyes, slight build, and delicate cheekbones as his mother, but
the nose, lips, and arch of the brow was clearly that of the father.

"Shinta-kun?" Hayato murmured, softly as he
produced a blanket to wrap up the boy's naked form.

"I'll take you to them," Hayato offered,
picking up the disoriented child.

"Hai," Shinta nodded, his eyes beginning to
droop.

Hayato smiled as the child fell asleep, and his
heart realized something.

He had made the right choice to bring this child
back.

qpqpqpqp

Hayato was a good man. But he was too trusting.
Or perhaps he wasn't curious enough.

He should have asked the kami "why".

qpqpqpqp

After Shinta's resurrection, it was agreed
upon by both Hayato and Shinta's parents that the small family
could no longer live in the village. Shinta had been dead not too
long ago and his reappearance would bring about questions that the
family did not want to answer. Shinta's mother was saddened to
leave the village of her birth, but did not protest much knowing it
was best for her child. Her husband had simply said of the village,
"Good riddance."

So the small family packed up their meager
belongings and traveled with Hayato to another village he knew well.
Hayato, knowing that he had created a huge impact on the family, was
reluctant to leave them. He felt responsible for them, in a way,
especially for little four-year-old Shinta. Hayato couldn't believe
Shinta to be a mere four. His short body and slightly pudgy cheeks
told his eyes that the boy was three, yet when Shinta spoke, Hayato's
ears argued that the child must be five or six. It was very confusing
at times.

As Hayato traveled with the small family, he
couldn't help but become attached to them. Soon, Shinta's parents
were also "Kaa-san" and "Tou-san" to him and "Shinta-kun"
transformed into a more affectionate "Shinta-ototou". To Shinta,
Hayato was "Nee-chan", which always caused Hayato to be unsure
whether he should wince or smile. Although Hayato tried to convince
Shinta to say "Nii-chan" instead, the child insisted, more
stubborn than rocks. Shinta was very set in his ways. Either that or
the little imp was teasing him. After awhile, Hayato gave up entirely
and began to accept that he would be "Big Sister" forever more.
After a few more days, he could even laugh about it.

In the end, it was a good thing that Hayato had
incorporated himself into the family. When they finally arrived in
the village, the habitants there did not question the small family,
seeming to write them off as "Houshi-sama's family". Hayato
sometimes found that odd. He was, after all, fifteen, only a few
years younger than the couple that he called "Kaa-san" (she was
nineteen) and "Tou-san" (he was twenty-two). Surely they would
have noticed that…

And then, in other times, Hayato simply passed
it off as the divine will of the kami.

Hayato found himself enjoying the family life
there at that little village. Tou-san and Kaa-san were wonderful
farmers. Through their hard work and dedication, nearly everything
they planted sprouted and flourished. As a result of their success in
the fields, the local villagers were glad of the family's help in
bringing in the crops, and readily accepted them. Shinta-chan helped
as much as he could, carrying the seed basket and pulling up weeds.

He was such a lively child. It was hard to
believe that he had ever been dead. Sometimes Hayato would even
forget. But then Tou-san would present little Shinta with a freshly
killed bird with the feathers still clinging to the body, and the
red-haired boy would devour the raw flesh the same way Hayato did
with grilled fish.

None of the other villagers knew of Shinta's
"condition". The family was very careful to hide Shinta's
"eating habits". The boy himself was smart enough to obey his
parents' orders to hide his secret.

Shinta really was such a good boy.

Sometimes at night, Hayato would wonder, what
was it that the kami wanted from Shinta? What task did they have for
him? Shinta was only a child after all…

'But children grow…'

Hayato sighed. There was no point in wondering
about the future. It was best to worry about the future when it came.

Hayato never was the most curious of human
beings.

Months passed, and the icy flower of winter
blossomed across the region.

Before Hayato knew it, he received word from his
temple, and the quiet family life he had built with Shinta's family
evaporated like water.

The temple had not discovered Hayato's use of
Hangon. That was a relief. However, there was a disturbance elsewhere
in the country and the temple needed as many monks there as possible.

That included Hayato.

So with a heavy heart, Hayato bid the small
family goodbye, promising profusely that he would return soon.

Shinta had protested loudly as only a child
could. Kaa-san had tried to convince him to wait until winter was
over before leaving, but the temple's orders were resolute. Hayato
had to leave. Tou-san, who had apparently come down with some sort of
cold during the winter, had been unable to get out of bed to see the
monk off.

However, when the older man turned his
fever-bright amber eyes at Hayato they were sharp with something
other than sickness.

Giving the family one last goodbye, Hayato
headed down the road, only looking back once to promise he would see
them all again.

The monk didn't know then that his promise
would never be kept…

Glossary:

Yare, yare: "oh well", "oh bother",
"if it must be so", etc.

Kami: god or gods

Houshi-sama: a respectful way of
addressing a Buddhist monk

Daijoubu (ka): "Are you alright?"/"I'm
alright"

-sama: "lord" or "lady"; used to
indicate respect

-kun: used to address boys/young men;
also used by a superior addressing an inferior

Sengoku/Warring States Era: the time
before the Tokugawa shogunate; there was near constant civil wars
(hence the name)

Edo Period: time of the Tokugawa
shogunate; the "golden age" of Japan (1603-1868)

Hai: "yes"

Kaa-chan/Kaa-san: "mother"

Tou-chan/Tou-san: "father"

Ototou: "little (younger) brother"

Nee-chan: "big (elder) sister"

Nii-chan: "big (elder) brother"

Author-chan's notes: Thus ends chapter 2! Yes,
I know I changed some things about the original Hangon ritual. Shrugs
Consider it poetic license. Besides, what little information I know
about Hangon came from a certain manga.

I am indeed referencing two other anime in this
chapter. Brownie points if you can guess which ones. (One of them is
the manga that I got my info on Hangon from.) Grin

As for Shinta calling Hayato "Nee-chan" in
the OAV when Kenshin is training with Hiko, he mentions a "Nee-chan".
Now that could be referencing one of the three girls, Kasumi, Akane,
or Sakura, but he called them all by their first names, not by
"Nee-chan". So I'll just say he was referring to Hayato there.
Yes, Shinta is a little prankster for calling Hayato "Nee-chan"…

Next Chapter: Disease

Please look forward to it.

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.